Text 10054, 73 rader
Skriven 2007-01-05 19:59:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: restaurants 830
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So we were set to have a quiet night at home, but Carol's
buddy Eden invited herself over for drinks and dinner, only
she wanted to go out for dinner. This a weekend night at
prime dining hour. We ended at a place where both of them
have apparently had decent meals before, Kwong's Hunan, in
the strip mall right by the supermarket. It was pretty
quiet and empty.

Carol started with hot and sour soup, which she pronounced
excellent; my taste of it was kind of bland but for a large
dose of black pepper. I ordered Hunan spicy wonton, expecting
them to be in a salty, hot sauce. What came: perfectly decent
wontons, 6 big ones instead of the 8 advertised on the menu,
home made, with plenty of nice pork-scallion filling. This was
in a broth whose principal flavorings were hot pepper (good)
and sugar (not so good). It was like eating hot spiced Coke
with a spoon. Another case of unclear on the concept. 

A nice big plate of deep-fried noodles was delivered to the
table.

Eden wanted a Bento box, an odd choice, but for a lot of
people Asian is Asian. This came as tuna roll, shumai, and
a big block of salmon that had been 1. previously frozen;
2. cooked from frozen; 3. stale and fishy; 4. overcooked;
and 5. dry and inedible, in a sweet teri-like sauce that
must have been half sugar. Eden took a bite and made a face;
I took a bite and made a face. I was all for sending it back,
but Eden didn't want to and said that she was full anyway.
The waitress came by and asked if everything was okay; Eden
said yes (a lie). At the end of the meal the waitress asked
if it should be boxed up, and Eden said no. This should
have been a bit of a giveaway, bringing a manager, but Eden
clearly didn't want to get full value ...

I'd ordered spicy beef with carrots and celery, wondering
what it would come as. There are two ways that this dish
comes at restaurants, both involving thin-shredded meat,
carrots, and celery, all bits about the same size and
shape. Sometimes the meat is coated in cornstarch and
fried briefly; sometimes it's marinated in soy sauce and
stir-fried (the way I prefer it). This day I found another
way to make the dish - the bad way. The carrots were about
right, though they'd been cut with one of those spinner
things so you get long uniform curly strands. The celery
was diagonal-cut chow mein celery, which is wrong. But the
beef took the cake. It was thin strips of unidentifiable
meat coated in SUGAR and fried not quite long enough to
fully caramelize the exterior. I'd ordered it extra spicy,
and there was no discernible flavor aside from sugar in
the whole dish - no hot peppers, no garlic, nothing.
It was intriguing to eat beef candy, but not an overly
pleasant experience, especially as the sugar was cooked
just long enough to have become extraordinarily sticky.

Carol's mu shu pork came out spicy; apparently the joker
in the kitchen had transposed the orders. I thought it
better than normal mu shu pork, but Carol could barely
eat it. The pancakes that came with were a bit on the
heavy and cardboardish side but at least didn't leak.

I guess that a kitchen can't be on all the time ... but
if anyone suggests that we go back there I'll just laugh.

Verdict: the sooner this place goes out of business the better.

Eden saved the day by offering a souvenir from her Italy
trip - Mario Gallucci dark chocolate with hot pepper flavor
- quite sweet, decent chocolate flavor, texture softish and
smooth, quite a harsh pepper bite in the back of the throat.
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